Kenneth J. Maggio

A discrete-time Bluetooth receiver in a 0.13/spl mu/m digital CMOS process

A discrete-time receiver architecture for a wireless application is presented. Analog signal processing concepts are used to directly sample the RF input at Nyquist rate. Maximum receiver sensitivity is -83dBm and the chip consumes a total of 41mA from a 1.575V internally regulated supply. The receiver is implemented in a 0.13/spl mu/m digital CMOS process.

The First Fully Integrated Quad-Band GSM/GPRS Receiver in a 90-nm Digital CMOS Process

We present the receiver in the first single-chip GSM/GPRS transceiver that incorporates full integration of quad-band receiver, transmitter, memory, power management, dedicated ARM processor and RF built-in self test in a 90-nm digital CMOS process. The architecture uses Nyquist rate direct RF sampling in the receiver and an all-digital phase-locked loop (PLL) for generating the local oscillator (LO). The receive chain uses discrete-time analog signal processing to down-convert, down-sample, filter and analog-to-digital convert the received signal. A feedback loop is provided at the mixer output and can be used to cancel DC-offsets as well to study linearization of the receive chain. The receiver meets a sensitivity of -110 dBm at 60mA in a 1.4-V digital CMOS process in the presence of more than one million digital gates

A 24mm 2 Quad-Band Single-Chip GSM Radio with Transmitter Calibration in 90nm Digital CMOS

The RF transceiver is built on the Digital RF Processor (DRP) technology. The ADPLL-based transmitter uses a polar architecture with all-digital PM-FM and AM paths. The receiver uses a discrete-time architecture in which the RF signal is directly sampled and processed using analog and DSP techniques. A 26 MHz digitally controlled crystal oscillator (DCXO) generates frequency reference (FREF) and has a means of high-frequency dithering to minimize the effects of coupling from digitally controlled PA driver (DPA) to DCXO by de-sensitizing its slicing buffer.

A 0.8mm 2 all-digital SAW-less polar transmitter in 65nm EDGE SoC

EDGE is currently the most widely used standard for data communications in mobile phones. Its proliferation has led to a need for low-cost 2.5G mobile solutions. The implementation of RF circuits in nanoscale digital CMOS with no or minimal process enhancements is one of the key obstacles limiting the complete SoC integration of cellular radio functionality with digital baseband. The key challenges for such RF integration include non-linearity of devices and circuits, device mismatches, process parameter spread, and the increasing potential for self-interference that could be induced by one function in the SoC onto another.

A discrete time quad-band GSM/GPRS receiver in a 90nm digital CMOS process

We present the receiver in the first single-chip GSM transceiver that incorporates full integration of quad-band receiver, transmitter, memory, power management, dedicated ARM processor and RF built-in self test in a 90 nm digital CMOS process. The architecture uses direct RF sampling in the receiver and an all-digital PLL in the transmitter. The receive chain uses discrete-time analog signal processing to down convert, down- sample, filter and analog-to-digital convert the received signal. An auxiliary feedback is provided at the mixer output that can linearize the entire receive chain. The receiver meets a sensitivity of -110 dBm at 60 mA in a 1.4V digital CMOS process

Charge-domain signal processing of direct RF sampling mixer with discrete-time filters in Bluetooth and GSM receivers

RF circuits for multi-GHz frequencies have recently migrated to low-cost digital deep-submicron CMOS processes. Unfortunately, this process environment, which is optimized only for digital logic and SRAM memory, is extremely unfriendly for conventional analog and RF designs. We present fundamental techniques recently developed that transform the RF and analog circuit design complexity to digitally intensive domain for a wireless RF transceiver, so that it enjoys benefits of digital and switched-capacitor approaches. Direct RF sampling techniques allow great flexibility in reconfigurable radio design. Digital signal processing concepts are used to help relieve analog design complexity, allowing one to reduce cost and power consumption in a reconfigurable design environment. The ideas presented have been used in Texas Instruments to develop two generations of commercial digital RF processors: a single-chip Bluetooth radio and a single-chip GSM radio. We further present details of the RF receiver front end for a GSM radio realized in a 90-nm digital CMOS technology. The circuit consisting of low-noise amplifier, transconductance amplifier, and switching mixer offers dB dynamic range with digitally configurable voltage gain of 40 dB down to dB. A series of decimation and discrete-time filtering follows the mixer and performs a highly linear second-order lowpass filtering to reject close-in interferers. The front-end gains can be configured with an automatic gain control to select an optimal setting to form a trade-off between noise figure and linearity and to compensate the process and temperature variations. Even under the digital switching activity, noise figure at the 40 dB maximum gain is 1.8 dB and dBm IIP2 at the 34 dB gain. The variation of the input matching versus multiple gains is less than 1 dB. The circuit in total occupies 3.1. The LNA, TA, and mixer consume less than mA at a supply voltage of 1.4 V.

A GSM/GPRS receiver front-end with discrete-time filters in a 90 nm digital CMOS

An RF receiver front-end for a GSM/GPRS radio system-on-chip in a 90 nm digital CMOS technology is presented. The circuit consisting of low noise amplifier, transconductance amplifier and switching mixer, offers 32.5 dB dynamic range with digitally-configurable voltage gain of 40 dB down to 7.5 dB. A series of decimation and discrete-time filtering follows the mixer and performs a highly-linear second-order low-pass filtering to reject close-in interferers. The front-end gains can be configured with an automatic-gain-control to select an optimal setting to form a trade-off between noise figure and linearity and to compensate the process and temperature variations. Even under the digital switching activity, noise figure at the 40 dB maximum gain is 1.8 dB and +50 dBm IIP/sub 2/ at the 34 dB gain. The variation of the input matching versus multiple gains is less than 1 dB. The circuit in total occupies 3.1 mm/sup 2/. The LNA, TA and mixer consume less than 15.3 mA at a supply voltage of 1.4 V.

A low-cost quad-band single-chip GSM/GPRS radio in 90nm digital CMOS

In this paper we present a quad-band single-chip GSM/GPRS radio in 90nm digital CMOS process based on the Digital RF Processor (DRP™) technology. This chip integrates all functions from physical layer to the protocol stack and peripheral support in a single chip RF SoC. The transmitter uses a low-area small-signal digital polar architecture merging amplitude and phase information directly in an RF DAC. The receiver is based on direct RF sampling and discrete-time analog signal processing. A dedicated internal microprocessor manages the digital RF controls to provide best achievable RF performances. The transceiver exceeds all 3GPP specifications demonstrating a receive NF of 1.8 dB and a margin of 8dB on TX spectral mask at 400 KHz offset in GSM850/900 bands. The transceiver is best-in-class in area and occupies only 3.8 mm2 of silicon area.